Asian Slow Cooker Pork — When They Tell You to Sell It, You Know You’ve Got Something

Brianna is doing hair full-time from the kitchen. She has six regular clients now and picks up walk-ins from Facebook posts. The kitchen transforms on hair days: cape over the chair, tools on the table (the mannequin head has been retired, replaced by actual human heads), the smell of hair products mixing with whatever I am cooking in the oven. The apartment is a salon and a kitchen and a home, simultaneously, and the boundaries between them are permeable. The money is not consistent but it is present. She averages three hundred to four hundred a week, which with my Chrysler check brings us back to functional. Not comfortable — never comfortable — but functional. The credit card debt is down to three thousand. We are paying it off like a mortgage: slowly, painfully, month by month. Aiden brought home his first report card from preschool. All "exceeds expectations." The teacher wrote: "Aiden is a joy in the classroom. He is kind, curious, and a natural leader." I read those words five times. I put the report card on the refrigerator next to his artwork. The fridge is a museum of my son's achievements, and I am the curator, and the collection is growing. I smoked ribs for the basketball league's end-of-season party. Thirty people. Three racks of spare ribs, dry-rubbed, smoked for five hours in the electric smoker, finished with sauce. Mr. Davis provided the sides. The ribs were the best I have made — the vinegar in the sauce balanced perfectly with the sweetness, the smoke ring was deep and pink, the meat pulled clean. A parent named Mrs. Williams told me, "You should sell these." Jerome has said it. Miss Doris has implied it. And now Mrs. Williams from the basketball league. Three independent sources confirming the same thesis: your food is good enough to sell. I am not ready to think about that. But the thoughts are there, unbidden, persistent, the way dreams are before they become plans.

The night I pulled those ribs out of the smoker for thirty people, I understood something I hadn’t put into words before: low heat and time do something to meat that nothing else can. That’s the same philosophy behind this Asian Slow Cooker Pork — you set it, you trust it, and hours later it rewards you with something deeper and richer than fast cooking ever could. When Mrs. Williams told me I should sell my food, I wasn’t ready to hear it, but I keep coming back to this kind of recipe because it reminds me that patience, in the kitchen and everywhere else, is its own kind of skill.

Asian Slow Cooker Pork

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 8 hrs | Total Time: 8 hrs 15 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 3 lbs boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• Sliced green onions and sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

1. Prepare the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, and red pepper flakes until fully combined.
2. Load the slow cooker. Place the pork chunks in a single layer (as much as possible) in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the sauce evenly over the top, turning the pieces to coat.
3. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 7—8 hours, or on HIGH for 4—5 hours, until the pork is fall-apart tender and deeply infused with flavor.
4. Thicken the sauce. About 20 minutes before serving, use a slotted spoon to transfer the pork to a bowl and set aside. Whisk the cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl, then stir the slurry into the cooking liquid in the slow cooker. Turn the heat to HIGH, cover, and let cook 15—20 minutes until the sauce thickens to a glaze.
5. Return and finish. Add the pork back into the slow cooker and gently toss to coat in the thickened glaze. Let it sit for 5 minutes to come together.
6. Serve. Plate over steamed white rice or rice noodles. Garnish with sliced green onions and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 620mg